A coalition of women’s advocacy groups has banded together to publicly demand for the return of the Lifetime network to EchoStar’s DISH Network.
In an open letter to EchoStar chairman Charlie Ergen, representatives from more than 50 organizations, including the Ms. Foundation for Women and the National Organization for Women, called for DISH Net to bring back Lifetime, which was dropped by the operator on Jan. 1 after the programmer’s carriage deal expired.
The letter, which was also signed by no less a luminary than Gloria Steinem, ran as a full-page ad in the Wednesday morning editions of The New York Times, The Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News.
In the Times, the letter ran alongside a full-page ad from Time Warner Cable, calling for area subscribers to “Switch from Dish Now.”
The gist of the letter is that in denying women access to Lifetime and the Lifetime Movie net, DISH is also denying women information about a number of social and health issues.
“By removing Lifetime as an option for your subscribers, millions of women will not get the inspiration and support they need about vital issues such as breast cancer, heart disease, violence against women, economic equality and more,” the letter read.
The letter went on to charge that Ergen’s “drastic, unnecessary actions and unwillingness to restore Lifetime and Lifetime Movie Network to the air and to continue working toward an agreement” suggest that the EchoStar chief does not “have women’s best interests in mind.”
EchoStar said that the standoff with Lifetime stemmed from the net’s demand for a 76 percent increase in its license fee for both networks, as well as a proviso calling for carriage for a third service. Lifetime continued to deny those claims Wednesday; a spokesman said that the net “asked for a modest increase for both Lifetime and Lifetime Movie Network, amounting to four cents per subscriber per month for both channels.”
In addition to the ad campaign––which is actively sponsored by Lifetime––women’s groups have held rallies in Greenville, S.C., and Houston calling for the network’s reinstatement.
Both sides say that they are back at the negotiating table, although EchoStar continues to stick to its rate increase claim, adding that it would gladly go public with the terms of Lifetime’s original proposal, should the net waive their joint confidentiality agreement.
Last week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Ergen blasted Lifetime, saying that in his 25 years in the business he’d never encountered “such an outrageous demand for payment... from a contractual point of view.” He also said that Lifetime had grown as avaricious as ESPN, which he characterized as the “most greedy” network.
http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/cabletv/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001842680
In an open letter to EchoStar chairman Charlie Ergen, representatives from more than 50 organizations, including the Ms. Foundation for Women and the National Organization for Women, called for DISH Net to bring back Lifetime, which was dropped by the operator on Jan. 1 after the programmer’s carriage deal expired.
The letter, which was also signed by no less a luminary than Gloria Steinem, ran as a full-page ad in the Wednesday morning editions of The New York Times, The Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News.
In the Times, the letter ran alongside a full-page ad from Time Warner Cable, calling for area subscribers to “Switch from Dish Now.”
The gist of the letter is that in denying women access to Lifetime and the Lifetime Movie net, DISH is also denying women information about a number of social and health issues.
“By removing Lifetime as an option for your subscribers, millions of women will not get the inspiration and support they need about vital issues such as breast cancer, heart disease, violence against women, economic equality and more,” the letter read.
The letter went on to charge that Ergen’s “drastic, unnecessary actions and unwillingness to restore Lifetime and Lifetime Movie Network to the air and to continue working toward an agreement” suggest that the EchoStar chief does not “have women’s best interests in mind.”
EchoStar said that the standoff with Lifetime stemmed from the net’s demand for a 76 percent increase in its license fee for both networks, as well as a proviso calling for carriage for a third service. Lifetime continued to deny those claims Wednesday; a spokesman said that the net “asked for a modest increase for both Lifetime and Lifetime Movie Network, amounting to four cents per subscriber per month for both channels.”
In addition to the ad campaign––which is actively sponsored by Lifetime––women’s groups have held rallies in Greenville, S.C., and Houston calling for the network’s reinstatement.
Both sides say that they are back at the negotiating table, although EchoStar continues to stick to its rate increase claim, adding that it would gladly go public with the terms of Lifetime’s original proposal, should the net waive their joint confidentiality agreement.
Last week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Ergen blasted Lifetime, saying that in his 25 years in the business he’d never encountered “such an outrageous demand for payment... from a contractual point of view.” He also said that Lifetime had grown as avaricious as ESPN, which he characterized as the “most greedy” network.
http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/cabletv/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001842680
